Employer Tax Error

C

cf29

Guest
I am asking for advice for a family member who has found themself in the situation where they have just discovered that their employer may have binned their P45 when they changed job in Jun of 05 and consequently they have been paying incorrect tax for the last 6mths. Even after asking, the employer cannot answer what happened. The P45 may have been binned or the wrong parts may have been sent of to the revenue but now my family members may owe approx €1200 in unpaid tax. Is it not an employers responsibility to deduct tax from an employees salary both PAYE and PRSI and remit this to the revenue? Surely if they fail to do this the employee should not be held responsible for their gross mistake even after sumbitting all the documents that they were required to do so.

Can anyone offer any advice as to where my family member stands and what they should do from here?
Thanks in advance
 
Same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. My employer had me in the incorrect tax band and I ended up underpaying £1500 in tax for that year. I was not happy but there was nothing I could do as the onus is on you to ensure you are paying the correct amount of tax. I have been paying Revenue back the underpaid tax for the last 5 years. (Finished now TG).
You can ask Revenue to reduce your family members tax credits for the next couple of years until the outstanding amount has been paid off. Ring Revenue and they will go through with you what to do.
 
Thanks for that info. It's just so annoying for my brother to have collected his P45 on his last day with his previous employer. Handed it over to the new employer and because of their incompetence and inability to post off the relevant pages he will now have to pay back tax which was underpaid for several years.
 
cf29 said:
Thanks for that info. It's just so annoying for my brother to have collected his P45 on his last day with his previous employer. Handed it over to the new employer and because of their incompetence and inability to post off the relevant pages he will now have to pay back tax which was underpaid for several years.
Click to expand...

How would a mistake with a P45 result in tax being underpaid for several years? I can see how it might effect tax in the year employment changed but any subsequent years should be unaffected by the P45 as he would be starting afresh with a new certificate of tax credits. Also as this happened in Jun 05 how does it relate to several years?
 
I think that they mean he'll have to repay the tax owing, for several years, not that the tax calculation was wrong for several years.

In this case, it seems to be a clerical error, so it probably wouldn't be covered by the Payment of Wages Act 1991.

Did this discrepancy appear on any of their wage slips?
 
dam099 said:
How would a mistake with a P45 result in tax being underpaid for several years? I can see how it might effect tax in the year employment changed but any subsequent years should be unaffected by the P45 as he would be starting afresh with a new certificate of tax credits. Also as this happened in Jun 05 how does it relate to several years?
Click to expand...

Apologies, poor grammer on my part I missed a comma! What I meant was that due to the employers mistake in not processing the P45, my brother will more than likely need to spread the repayment of the unpaid tax over a few years. It is unlikely he will have the lump sum to hand.
 
"In this case, it seems to be a clerical error, so it probably wouldn't be covered by the Payment of Wages Act 1991.
Did this discrepancy appear on any of their wage slips?"

While the wage slips show tax being paid it is obvious now that it was not the full amount due, from what I can see it was the PRSI contribution. Is there no way the employer can be held responsible/accountable for such a blatant error? The relevant documents were given to them as requested but they failed to process them. From the replies about it appears that an employee must hound the relevant individuals to see that they do their job properly? My brother did originally query the tax amount and was told that things would right themselves inthe next pay check. He did not query his monthly salary as he had received a salary increase when he moved company and so was unsure of exactly how much his gross pay would be.
 
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